Examines what fourth-grade students learned by using computer-based tools intended to help them understand sound and music. Findings provide critical information for future instruction with the goal of supporting learning about sound and music from such tools. They also indicate the need for more studies examining learning from computer-based…

Discusses innovations in testing methods in college-level science. Highlights previous efforts at reform, new thinking, new practices, and computer-generated exams and scoring systems. Reports on focus group interviews that explore student recollections of in-class examinations in college-level science. (24 references) (JRH)

Discusses the design of an Internet-based lesson plan development project. Examines strategies teachers used and their effect on lesson plan design, information gathering, and organization. Presents a case study of the strategies and emerging practices in the creation and pilot-testing of Internet-based lesson plans. (19 references) (Author/JRH)

Studies the conceptual changes and factors affecting eighth- grade physical science students (n=180) investigating elementary thermodynamics. Classifies three types of students regarding their learning methods: converging, progressing, and oscillating. Reports that original intuitive conceptions are difficult to change and that students engaged in…

Describes the general use of two-way video/two-way audio technology to link three remote sites and a studio. Evaluated the instructors' and participants' use of the 22 hours of broadcast material. Determined that hands-on science activities seem to lessen the feeling of distance between remote sites and the studio. (Author/MVL)

Determines the extent to which aptitude alone contributes to academic performance with specific reference to performance in the introductory level physics practical. Establishes which specific aspects of aptitude are the most salient predictors of success in the physics practical. Attempts to establish whether familiarity with the language of…

Describes changes in students' ideas about science classes, attitudes about science, and motivations for studying science in a classroom designed to support project-based science learning. Results suggest that providing students with the opportunities to collect and analyze their own data results in a change in students' ideas about science…

Investigates the experiences and effects of working as a host or exhibit interpreter at the Ontario Science Centre. Examines how the hosts benefit from the program in terms of their knowledge about and attitudes toward science and technology. Dominant aspects of learning for the respondents tended to be inspirational and attitudinal, as well as…

Introduces Sense-Making, an alternative methodology which allows an insight into a person's perception of reality. Interviews science teachers following a viewing of "Jurassic Park" to investigate the relationship of the movie to their ontological view of science, society, and self. (Author/MVL)

Examines some of the misuses of technology and then explores the appropriate use of technology in the context of current educational reform. Focuses on the integration of technology in the educational process that provides a learning environment allowing discovery and creativity through the use of computer visualizations. (Author/MVL)

Discusses the relativist apologetic strategy and describes a scenario in which the strategy could be adopted to give creationism intellectual respectability, thereby having the potential to create a climate where evolutionist arguments for an educational monopoly would not necessarily ring true. (DKM)

Argues that, for a misconception to be abandoned, the learner must come to see it as unsatisfactory. The new conception must be intelligible, plausible, and fruitful. Suggests that students should have an active cognitive involvement in the process. Contains 16 references. (DDR)

Discusses how biologists use evolutionary theory and provides examples of how evolutionary biologists test hypotheses on specific modes of selection and evolution. Presents an example of the successful predictive power of one evolutionary hypothesis. Contains 38 references. (DDR)

Reports that creationism has been specifically banned from the Provincial curriculum as a legitimate scientific subject in all public schools and level one private schools in British Columbia. (DDR)

Cites several events that suggest that the pressure against the teaching of evolution has not abated. Argues that evolutionary theory is state-of-the-art science. Uses survey data to illustrate the extent of antievolutionary attitudes. (DDR)